There is a mesmerizing painting at the New Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val in Moscow that is Love on the Stage. Marc Chagall is a philosopher whose art is deep, it is always about something real that lives inside us. And on this painting too, the artist seems not to just depict lovers on stage but to express the very essence of love. This canvas makes part of a series of paintings that Marc Chagall created in 1920 for Moscow State Jewish Theatre at the invitation of the art critic and historian Abram Efros.
It was an interesting story behind the painting that inspired the idea for Igor Kolb’s new production. “The artist emigrated to Europe, not knowing whether his canvas had survived,” says Igor Kolb. “During the Soviet period, upon arriving in Moscow, Chagall was surprised to discover his work. It was carefully removed from the stretcher, rolled up and preserved. Today it adorns a hall of the New Tretyakov Gallery. This backstory is very theatrical. It seemed fundamentally important to me that the connecting link here are the people who preserved the painting.”
That is why Igor Kolb, the author of the idea and libretto, who is also the choreographer and stager of the production, moves away from Marc Chagall’s autobiography, focusing on the time and the people. The tragic and passionate stories of the Artist’s contemporaries will come to life around him, those of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik, Sergei Yesenin and Isadora Duncan, Serge Lifar and Olga Spessivtseva. “I want to tell about the people of Chagall’s era, who lived and created alongside him,” Igor Kolb adds.
At the heart of the ballet’s dramaturgy lies swift flight: from Vitebsk to Petersburg, from Petersburg to Moscow, from Moscow to Paris. “There is houses and blue goats flying in Chagall’s Universe, lovers are also flying rising above the everyday life… Whatever happens, one can always rise above the bustle thanks to Love, the relationship between a man and a woman,” Igor Kolb explains.
A particularly poignant chapter of the production will be its reflection on the fate of the Jewish people during World War II. In order to convey the scale of the tragedy and the enduring pain, the choreographer wove the story of Ivan and Julia from Vasil Bykov’s Alpine Ballad into his narrative.
It is worth noting that the production will feature prayers recited in Yiddish. This powerful emotional move – the word in ballet – is the tribute to the artist’s roots. And it is another reminder of the environment in which Marc Chagall was born and where his seemingly fantastic artistic world was formed.
In the musical structure of the production the musical director and conductor, People’s Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan Artem Makarov included the works by Johannes Brahms, Sergei Prokofiev, Alfred Schnittke and Belarusian composer Andrey Zubrich. “The figure of Marc Chagall becomes that very core, around which the story crystallizes. Through the lens of his life, we explore the intertwining of the other characters’ fates. And here music acts as an important guide through the production. Music becomes an immediate reflection of each character’s soul. We have done a colossal amount of work, listening to a vast number of compositions to find the perfect balance. And the work is still continuing…” Igor Kolb specifies.
The set and costume designer Olga Melnik is responsible for the visual concept of the ballet. We already know that in the production grey tones and shades will prevail, and the stories about love for a woman carried through the years will be painted as bright flashes, figuratively speaking. The entire depth of the stage is to be used in the production. Thus, in the finale, the atmosphere of the Paris Opera will be recreated in the upstage, that will be gradually moved downstage by the end. It is the Opéra Garnier ceiling in Paris that was painted by the Belarusian artist.
The choreographer also has pulled back the curtain on the principal dancers’ names “Psychoemotional matching with the characters is very important. Anton Kravchenko and Liudmila Khitrova, thanks to their life experience and characters, will perform Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik. Aleksandra Chizhik and Ivan Kamyshov will tell the story of Sergei Yesenin and Isadora Duncan, while the drama of the ballet artists will be played out by Yelyzaveta Musoryna, Nika Skrebkova (Olga Spessivtseva), Konstantin Belokhvostik, and Kiryl Zaleski (Serge Lifar)… A special place in the dramaturgy of the ballet is occupied by the finale. It is a philosophical ending of the path as the hero, slightly lost in the world, with an ‘otherworldly’ detachment, realizes the main truth: the path of a creator inevitably leads to loneliness.”
Подготовила Е.Балабанович
Дата публикации: 16.07.2026